Bengaluru: With the Champions Trophy beginning next month, the Indian hockey team’s drag flick specialist VR Raghunath believes the team is toiling hard to cement their spot in the national side.
And Karnataka ace Raghunath feels that every member in the line-up should prove his worth while representing the nation. “Nobody can take their place in the Indian team for granted; you have to constantly prove yourself. Anyone who performs well will be in the squad and personally for me, I would like to test myself against big teams like Australia, Germany and Netherlands in the upcoming tournaments and analyse my performance,” he said.
Being the most experienced dragflicker, Raghunath’s priority will be to take his team to a good position at the Champions Trophy and Six Nations Tournament. “The priority will be to convert maximum penalty corners so that my team is in a comfortable spot in the first two quarters,” he added.
According to Raghunath, the triumphant run at the Asian Games two years ago brought in a huge change in the players’ moral. “Ever since the Asian Games Gold in 2014, the team has started to believe in itself again. We never wanted to come down from that stage and only wanted to climb up. We had a ranking of 12-13 before 2014. Recently we were placed No.6 and currently we are ranked No.7 in the world,” he mentioned.
With a commendable performance in the last few seasons, top teams are keeping an eagle on India’s progress. “No opponent takes us lightly anymore and they talk about us as a team that does well in knockouts.
“I believe we have a bright chance and we are moving in the right direction for the upcoming tournaments,” claimed the 27-year-old defender. On the preparations for Rio Olympics at SAI, Southern Centre, Raghunath said, “I feel we are best prepared than ever before for a big tournament, be it physically, mentally or even psychologically. We not only focus on improving individually but also encourage each other and tell ourselves that we need to perform as a unit to leave a mark at the Olympics this time,” he concluded.
